Chapter 1721: Enlightenment from Observing the Saints
In the Mountain and Sea before them, the fierce battle between the six Saints seemed to have only just begun.
Ripples of the conflict were beginning to spread through the void realm, yet the true forms of the three Saints showed no sign of faltering. Thus, the Mountain and Sea remained unscathed, and the other Saints within the Armillary Ring stayed seated.
However, Shou Qiu, having crossed over from another time, merged with his counterpart in this era.
His expression shifted through several emotions before he abruptly rose to his feet.
Under the watchful eyes of all present, he made his way toward the site of the six Saints' titanic struggle.
The other Saints watched, surprised and hesitant, but none chose to follow him.
"We should do as the three Saints instructed and simply observe," one of them mused.
"Indeed," another agreed. "The three Saints never specified the exact dangers within the void realm. But if it is a problem that even they find troublesome, we certainly have no place interfering. We would not only be useless but might even become a liability."
"Shou Qiu is usually so composed. I wonder what prompted this sudden change in him?"
The minds of Stealing Opportunity, Sundial Fate, and the others raced with speculation, but they could find no clear answer.
Meanwhile, Shou Qiu and Moral, having completed their unification, had already slipped into the void realm with Li Fan, arriving at the heart of the six Saints' battle.
Drawing upon the experience from his previous life, Li Fan approached this concealment with far greater patience.
They simply remained hidden in the shadows, observing every shift and turn of the battle.
Even as the three Saints' true forms appeared to be slipping into a perilous state, the trio did not reveal themselves.
They waited until the void avatars, aiming to end the conflict in a single, decisive move, unleashed the Congenital Ferocious Items.
The Life Rope bound Lian Shan, the Turtle Shell suppressed Gui Hai, and the Ancestral Bone ensnared Tai Yi!
Initially, the three Saints were still reluctant to retaliate with the Congenital Ferocious Items they held in their possession, as if they harbored a deep-seated fear of something.
It was only when they could no longer hold their ground that they were finally forced to deploy them.
The Congenital Ferocious Items countered each other, and for a moment, the crisis was averted.
The battlefield settled once more into a tense stalemate.
Li Fan and his companions observed every subtle development, missing nothing.
"Shou Qiu, do you have any idea what it is the three Saints truly fear?" Li Fan asked.
Moral and Shou Qiu had also sensed the profound hesitation radiating from the three Saints.
"Even if they were to die here, it would only mean their erasure from this specific segment of time and space," Shou Qiu began. "On the grand scale of the entire Mountain and Sea, they would still exist. Furthermore, they possess the divine ability of Primordial Indestructibility, so the losses incurred by their deaths are likely far less than we might imagine. It seems that compared to being slain by the void avatars, the three Saints are far more concerned about the complete disconnection of the Mountain and Sea."
"From what we've observed of their actions, it's clear that while they have suppressed and subdued their Congenital Ferocious Items, the risk of a backlash remains. And should that backlash occur..."
"...it would likely affect more than just the three Saints in this particular era," Shou Qiu concluded, his gaze profound after a long period of observation.
Moral nodded thoughtfully. "The Dao Annihilation fractured the Mountain and Sea into countless, isolated fragments. However, the Congenital Ferocious Items originate from the fallen True God. It's possible they can pierce the barriers of the void, maintaining some faint connection between them."
"If one of them were to successfully turn against a Saint in a single segment, it could exploit that connection to spread its influence throughout the entire Mountain and Sea, thereby escaping its fate of suppression."
"In that case," Li Fan interjected, "subduing the Congenital Ferocious Items was likely not as effortless as they made it seem. That wisp of divine consciousness each of them sent to us... I suspect..."
Recalling the unprecedented caution the three Saints had displayed when they separated those wisps of consciousness, Li Fan nodded slightly in understanding.
The grueling battle in the void realm raged on.
The void avatars, drawing upon the seemingly limitless power of the void realm, fought recklessly, with no regard for the cost.
And though the three Saints were at a disadvantage, their foundations were immensely deep.
They were imperiled, but not yet defeated.
Yet Li Fan and his companions, knowing the three Saints' inevitable demise, remained concealed.
Patiently, they waited, absorbing and comprehending the intricacies of the six Saints' combat.
All three possessed comprehension abilities that were among the finest in the Mountain and Sea. Their unique life experiences and chosen paths of Dao gave them different perspectives, and under the effect of Same Heart Same Virtue, their individual insights intertwined and merged into a cohesive whole.
Their progress was astonishing, advancing by leaps and bounds.
The efficiency was nearly on par with Li Fan comprehending the Dao directly within the Dao Return Hall.
As the saying goes, know your enemy and know yourself. Though he wielded the Dao of Truth and Falsehood, Li Fan did not consider it pointless to comprehend the Daos of the three Saints.
"The civilization of the Mountain and Sea, the living beings of the Mountain and Sea, the Great Dao of the Mountain and Sea..."
"In seeing the three Saints, we are seeing the Mountain and Sea itself."
The insights he gained were cross-referenced with the [Mountain Sea Variation Outline] from Return to True. What had once been hollow, abstract data began to take on substance and depth.
Li Fan felt a premonition: if he were to attain Sainthood in the Mountain and Sea again in his next life, his power would surely surpass all his previous incarnations.
The trio drank in the knowledge from the six Saints' battle, as if starved for it.
And then, the final act of this battle quietly began.
The countless fine threads representing the Mountain and Sea that surrounded the three Saints began to look as if they had been weathered by wind and frost, tarnished and rusted. Their movements slowed, their transformations grew sluggish, and a creeping sense of deathly stillness began to emanate from them.
Sensing the premonition of the three Saints' imminent deaths, a dark undercurrent surged once more within the void.
The faces of the three Saintly phantoms twisted into ferocious masks as they conjured new Congenital Ferocious Items from the void.
And sent them descending upon their true bodies!
"Now!"
Before Shou Qiu's word had even finished echoing, he stepped forward, appearing abruptly in the midst of the battle.
Wielding the divinity of Gui Hai, he moved not to aid Gui Hai, but to rescue Tai Yi from his plight.
Just as a second Ancestral Bone was about to fasten itself to Tai Yi's body, Shou Qiu gently intercepted it.
Li Fan and Moral struck at the very same moment.
Moral, channeling the divinity of Tai Yi, aided Lian Shan in resisting the encroaching Life Rope.
Li Fan, embodying the divinity of Lian Shan, helped Gui Hai escape the fate of being crushed beneath the Turtle Shell.
The three dying Saints stared at the sudden appearance of Li Fan's trio, a flicker of astonishment finally breaking through their perpetually calm expressions.
But just as quickly, they sensed the wisps of their own divine consciousness that the newcomers carried, and understanding dawned in an instant.
"Confine it with divinity, subdue it with will."
The three Saints' voices echoed in their minds, revealing the key to subduing the very Congenital Ferocious Items that now assailed them.
Though they each faced a different foe, the power of Same Heart Same Virtue united them. They were like a single being, simultaneously witnessing the assault of all three Congenital Ferocious Items.
Heaven and earth roared. In the first evolution after the Mountain and Sea's consciousness fractured, a cast-off shell was born.
It was the Mountain and Sea itself, yet it also embodied everything old and obsolete that the new Mountain and Sea had discarded.
Its weight was immeasurable, born from the infinite resentment of that which had been cast aside.
"Why was I abandoned? Why did you change?"
"To be abandoned is to be useless! To change is to die!"
"Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die!"
From that small piece of turtle shell, a malevolent energy surged to the heavens. It carried the full weight of the Mountain and Sea as it came crashing down upon Li Fan.
"You gave me life, you nurtured me! Why do you now seek to kill me?"
"If I am not to be spared, why should you be?"
"Come with me to oblivion!"
It was as if flesh began to sprout from the Ancestral Bone, and a figure long dead seemed to stir back to life in that instant. It stared at Shou Qiu, its face a mask of venomous hatred.
"My birth was preordained, but for what purpose?"
"My fate is death, so what is the point of this toil?"
"It is all for nothing!"
As the Life Rope wove its pattern, Moral faintly saw another version of himself.
...
"Confine it with divinity, subdue it with will."
The three Saints' reminder echoed in their minds once more.
At the same time, the three Saints' divine consciousnesses floated out.
As if to demonstrate, they met the Congenital Ferocious Items head-on.
"The old must die, the weak must die, and those destined for death must die!" Facing the Turtle Shell as it pressed down with its infinite resentment, the divinity of Lian Shan replied with cold finality.
With a simple lift of its hand and a gentle point of a finger, it halted the overwhelming momentum of the Turtle Shell.
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